Fog
by Tears of the Snow Princess
Summary: Elsa won't eat until she's allowed to see her sister again. Young Elsanna, potential ED trigger warning. Part of the Bitter Chocolate series.


Sharp cheekbones in a face with a child's eyes. And tall, a little too tall, for a girl of thirteen. Skinnier than she should be, a willow switch caught somewhere between becoming a woman and staying a child.  
"You're too pale, Elsa," her mother said gently. "It makes you look sick."  
"I don't mean to look sick," Elsa replied indifferently, face turned toward the window. Her slender, gloved hands twisted in her narrow lap. "Maybe I am sick."  
"Elsa, please," the queen murmured, brows knitting as looked upon her stubbornly distant daughter. Elsa had always been pale, her ivory skin almost bluish toned, but she was paler than usual and her veins glowed too brightly beneath her skin, spreading violet branches of a dead tree. Elsa ignored her mother's words; they were spoken softly but the harsh lines of her mouth were an irritated parenthesis of exhaustion. They dripped into an alphabet soup. A mess of apostrophes and commas fell into her wine as she took a sip, her painted lips staining the glass.  
Elsa almost hissed with irritation as her mother pushed the plate of food across the table to her. This had been the routine since the girls were separated; the king and queen would reserve one day of the week to eat lunch with Elsa instead of down in the hall with Anna, who would eat with her governess. After a while, the king had stopped coming and the lunch dates grew shorter, but the queen still made the effort to at least show her face. However, in the last few months, things had changed. Elsa had started refusing to eat.  
"Please eat something, Elsa," her mother begged. "You're skin and bones!"  
"I'd like you to leave," Elsa said coldly, standing up abruptly and pushing the food away. She looked like she'd grown too much in too short a space of time. She was fog on a wire frame.  
"Elsa-" her mother began before rubbing her temples and getting to her feet. "Fine. I'll leave you. But I'll be back at dinner. And you will _eat."_  
"I'll eat if you let me see Anna," Elsa said, expressionless. The queen studied her daughter intently. They'd discussed this. The sisters were to remain separated. Elsa still couldn't control her magic, even with the gloves she could still be dangerous. Elsa was permitted to sit in the alcove in the library, hidden from sight, and watch Anna do her lessons, but no more. That was close enough. And though even just the sight of her sister made Elsa blossom like a flower, the petals that unfurled were already dead, frostbitten.  
"Your father and I have told you, Elsa," she replied in a measured tone. "We cannot let that happen."  
"Then I won't eat anything. I'll die in here," Elsa replied hotly, ice spreading from her feet and erupting into vicious thorns. She picked up her glass and threw it at the wall, where it shattered into a storm of crystal shards. "I'll be dead and you'll be happy because then I won't be around to screw up your life anymore!"  
She bolted across the room and clambered into her bed, drawing the curtains so her mother couldn't see her. Taking the hint, the queen left without another word. Elsa didn't see her mother shoo Anna, who had been listening at the keyhole, away from the door.

Elsa wept until she felt so light and empty that she might float away. Eventually, she fell asleep. By the time she finally got out of bed, the stars had pressed their faces to her window and the fire was dead in the grate. She lit her candles and went to start the fire. Her mother hadn't returned at dinner, but somebody had come in and cleared away the broken glass and uneaten food. A covered dish had been left in its place, presumably dinner. Elsa barely spared it a glance, undressing by the slowly growing fire and glancing in the mirror. She was stunted and odd looking, too tall. Her body had stayed childish, though other girls her age had begun to look more like women. Only her face had matured. Her skin clung to her bones anxiously, greyish and cold to the touch. Repulsed, Elsa looked away and slipped into her nightgown. Suddenly, an odd scraping noise caught her attention. Curious, Elsa listened carefully, trying to identify where the noise might have come from. She crawled over to her bedroom door and peered under the gap at the bottom, where she was promptly hit in the face with something. Rubbing her face, she sat up and pulled the something the rest of the way through. It was a thin box, wrapped with a ribbon. Elsa looked back under the door to see a familiar eye looking back.  
"Thank you," she whispered, blowing some snowflakes under the door. She heard Anna giggle on the other side. Turning back to the box, she opened it. It was a box of tiny chocolates, just big enough to fit in the space. Some were decorated with edible flowers or fondant snowflakes. One or two were wrapped in delicate spun sugar cages. Elsa wondered if Anna had asked the kitchen to make them this small especially for this purpose.  
"Elsa?" Anna's voice crept under the door, a grey mouse. "Please eat something. I don't want you to die."  
Elsa began to cry and picked up one of the spun sugar chocolates. The sugar melted in her fingers. She placed the chocolate in her mouth. Chew. Swallow. It tasted like smiling.  
She ate another, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, another, a sob creeping from between her lips.  
"I love you," she told Anna, mouth full, weeping.  
"I love you too," Anna said firmly. "And if I have to bring you chocolate every day I will, because I don't want you to die."  
"I don't want to die either," Elsa whispered, wiping her mouth, realizing she'd eaten half of the chocolates in quick succession. Her stomach responded with a grumble and Anna giggled, her laughter shaking the door in its frame. Elsa guessed she was sitting with her back to the door.  
"I'll wake up early and we can have breakfast together. Cook likes me, he might let me eat here in the hall and we can talk through the door," Anna suggested brightly.  
"I wish we didn't have to talk through the door," Elsa said in a small voice.  
"So do I," Anna sighed. "Sometimes I catch glimpses of you in the library, you know. When I'm doing my lessons. Sometimes after you're gone, I go sit where I saw you hiding and melt handprints into the frost you leave on the windows."  
Elsa sobbed, but was interrupted the scrabbling sound of Anna pushing her hand under the door. She pushed her hand under the door. Her fingertips could just reach Anna's, but it was comfort enough. The warmth was alien, the sensation of being touched by another person so unfamiliar that she felt another sob rising. Suddenly, Anna pulled away.  
"I can hear someone coming," she said urgently. "I have to go back to my room, but I love you Elsa."  
"I love you too," Elsa breathed, her breath turning to clouds as the air cooled rapidly. She didn't move, her hand still jammed under the door.

The next morning, Elsa's door was frozen shut and frost covered the hallway floor where Anna had been sitting. Anna never came for breakfast, but Elsa ate her porridge anyway. When she went to her usual hiding place in the library, she found a hastily scrawled note in half-hearted cursive.

_Elsa,_

_Cook asked mother why I wanted to eat in the hallway and they made me come sit at the table. I'm sorry. _

_Anna_

Elsa flipped the piece of paper over and wrote on the back with the pen and ink she kept stored in the alcove so she could write down ideas for stories as she hid.

_Anna,_

_It's okay, don't worry. I ate breakfast. Porridge and strawberries. They smelled like you. The strawberries I mean, not the porridge. I was hungrier than I thought._

_Elsa_

She drew a dragon devouring a bowl of porridge and weighted the note down with a chocolate she'd saved from last night. Elsa pulled off her glove and pressed her finger to the window, using the frost that started to flower there to write another message.

_I miss you._

The letters glittered in the morning sunlight and began to melt.


End file.
